Mind is a leading mental health charity in England and Wales and has produced information on many areas of mental health. This factsheet defines advocacy and discusses the different kinds of advocacy, who advocacy is for and the situations where it could be applied. Also included is a list of useful organisations and further reading.

This report has been compiled by 'Opening Doors in Thanet', a group of older people living in the Isle of Thanet, who are aware of and want to help service-providers understand the difficulties, and improve the lives, of Lesbian, Gay Bi-sexual and Transgendered (LGBT) older people. It is based on the results of a questionnaire sent out to sheltered housing providers, residential homes, nursing homes, care companies and day centres catering for the older population of Thanet.

This resource looks at the stigma and discrimination which affects people living with HIV and AIDS and the people who are perceived to be HIV positive because they are members of the communities most affected by the virus, such as gay men or Africans.

Reviews recent literature on how early years experiences may impact on life chances for different groups of the population. Life chances can cover a range of opportunities that people can experience as they become adults and into their later life. These opportunities include, for example, the likelihood of being in employment over individuals’ lifetimes, the chances of obtaining educational qualifications and the chances of good physical and mental health.

This episode of Radio 4's Thinking Allowed series includes a segment on gay, lesbian and bisexual muslims in view of the fact that non-heterosexuality is strictly censored in Islamic religious texts. This year the Sociological Review published an article by Andrew Yip called 'Negotiating Space with Family and Kin in Identity Construction: the Narratives of Non-heterosexual Muslims'.

How can homophobic bullying be stopped? It is estimated that there are 60,000 lesbians and gay teenagers subjected to homophobic bullying at any one time. Gay rights charity, Stonewall, has launched a campaign called Education for All which highlights the problems of this type of bullying in schools. Jenni hears from a lesbian who endured bullying at school for many years.

She also finds out what is being done to eradicate this neglected aspect of bullying and why despite government guidelines, schools still don't seem to know how to deal with this problem.

This episode of Radio 4's Woman's Hour series looks at how being a lesbian has changed. Jenni Murray talks to Clare Summerskill about her new play, Gateway to Heaven which is based entirely on the memories of older lesbians and gay men. Their stories are an eye-opener on a time when lesbians and gay men were significantly more constrained, both legally and socially, than they are today.

This factsheet examines the potential of anti-discrimination law to protect people living with HIV from discrimination in the UK. It argues the law is seriously hampered by the complexity and inconsistent way in which it seeks to promote equality and address discrimination.

This conference report examines the issues relating to making advocacy more accessible for everyone. Specifically, the report looks at what can be done to promote diversity and inclusion, the importance of advocacy for people with dementia, what children and young people want from advocacy, and the advocacy needs of deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing people.